Mass Effect 3 teaser trailer invades Earth

Everything that was wrong with the demo can be summed up with this:

"If you pull this off I'm making you an honorary krogan!"

1) Lack of respect for the series mythology and past events.
2) Lack of respect for established characterisation.
3) DEAR GOODNESS IT'S A TERRIBLE LINE.

Not that I had high hopes or anything. But it was even worse than I expected. Wrex is there, but it's not Wrex. Mordin is there but it is not Mordin. Kirrahe shows up and it's like, "Oh hey, remember this guy? 'Hold the line'? You loved that, right? LOVE HIM AGAIN!". The dialogue is atrocious, the storytelling clumsy and dull, there's no impact to anything, no tension or sense of threat, no emotion, nothing. It's just flat. Such an immense drop from ME2, I'm left thinking "What happened, what on earth happened?".

Also, no sniper rifle for an infiltrator? 'Long-range shotgun'? That can just feck right off.

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Razer reveals Mass Effect 3 branded peripherals

Why stop there?

Bioware, wheres's my Commander Shepard Limited Edition Barbie Dress Up Doll?
You could sell new outfits and hairdo via "physical DLC" (Marketing Exec's, i know you'd want that).

Seriously, i'm afraid i'll nevertheless buy Mass Effect 3 to complete the story, but my expectations are quite low.

Some of the dialogue bits in the 20 minutes walkthrough video were exceptionally bad, a sad thing to encounter in a game that gloats itself over with being so story driven.

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2012 BAFTA Video Game Award nominations list

BAFTA has announced its shortlist for the 2012 British Academy Video Games Awards and Batman: Arkham City and L.A. Noire lead the pack with eight nominations each.

Other blockbusters in line for prizes include Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and LittleBigPlanet 2, both with six nominations, while Portal 2 and Skyrim each have five award nods.

Brilliant Xbox Live Arcade game Bastion has two nominations - for Debut Game and Game Innovation - although no acknowledgement for its music or voice performance.

Fellow downloadable delight From Dust also claimed nods in the Innovation and Strategy categories.

Stephen Merchant is nominated for his portrayal of demented robot sidekick Wheatley in Portal 2, as is Luke "Mark Hamill" Skywalker for Batman: Arkham City's Joker and Mad Men star Aaron Stanton for shouting at innocent witnesses in L.A. Noire.

Will Nolan North attend to claim the prizes for every game? Will Brendan McNamara give a funny acceptance speech? Can anything stop Skyrim from winning the public vote?

BAFTA will roll out the red carpet and announce this year's winners on Friday 16th March.

Action

Assassin's Creed RevelationsBatman: Arkham CityCall of Duty: Modern Warfare 3Deus Ex: Human RevolutionPortal 2Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Artistic Achievement

Batman: Arkham CityL.A. NoireLitteBigPlanet 2Rayman: OriginsThe Elder Scrolls 5: SkyrimUncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Audio Achievement

Batman: Arkham CityBattlefield 3Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3Dead Space 2The NightjarUncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Best Game

Batman: Arkham CityFIFA 2012L.A. NoirePortal 2The Elder Scrolls V - SkyrimThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Debut Game

BastionEufloriaInsanely Twisted Shadow PlanetL.A. NoireMonstermindRIFT

Design

Batman: Arkham CityL.A. NoireLittleBigPlanet 2Portal 2Super Mario 3D LandThe Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim

Family

Dance Central 2Kinect Sports 2LEGO Pirates of the CaribbeanLEGO Star Wars III: The Clone WarsLittleBigPlanet 2Mario Kart 7

Game Innovation

BastionChild of EdenFrom DustL.A. NoireLittleBigPlanet 2The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Mobile & Handheld

Dead Space iOSMagnetic Billiards: BlueprintPeggleQuarrelSuper Mario 3D LandThe Nightjar

Online - Browser

Gardens of TimeI Am PlayrMonstermindResistance 3Skylanders: Spyro's AdventureThe Sims Social

Online - Multiplayer

Assassin's Creed: RevelationsBattlefield 3Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3Dark SoulsGears of War 3LittleBigPlanet 2

Original Music

Assassin's Creed: RevelationsBatman: Arkham CityDeus Ex: Human RevolutionL.A. NoireThe Elder Scrolls V - SkyrimUncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Performer

Aaron Stanton (Cole Phelps) - L.A. NoireMark Hamill (The Joker) - Batman: Arkham CityNolan North (Nathan Drake) - Uncharted 3: Drake's DeceptionStephen Fry (Narrator) - LittleBigPlanet 2Stephen Merchant (Wheatley) - Portal 2Togo Igawa (Dipolomat, Advisor and Military General) - Total War: SHOGUN 2

Sports/Fitness

Dance Central 2DiRT 3Fl 2011FIFA 2012Kinect Sports 2Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012

Story

Batman: Arkham CityDeus Ex: Human RevolutionL.A. NoirePortal 2The Elder Scrolls V - SkyrimUncharted 3: Drake's Deception

Strategy

Dark SoulsDeus Ex: Human RevolutionFootball Manager 2012From DustGhost Recon Shadow WarsTotal War: SHOGUN 2

BAFTA Ones to Watch Award in association with Dare to Be Digital

DreamweaverJoust!Tick Tock Toys

GAME Award of 2011 (voted for by the public)

Batman: Arkham CityBattlefield 3Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3FIFA 2012L.A NoireMinecraftPortal 2The Elder Scrolls V: SkyrimThe Legend of Zelda: Skyward SwordUncharted 3: Drake's Deception

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Prototype dev: gamers thought Alex Mercer "was a d**k"

Prototype fans thought protagonist Alex Mercer "was a dick," developer Radical Entertainment has said.

It hopes the main character of Prototype 2, James Heller, will be likeable.

In Prototype, scientist Mercer gains destructive superpowers from a virus he himself unleashes on New York. He then goes on a revenge-fuelled rampage in an attempt to uncover the truth behind the catastrophe.

In Protoype 2, you play James Heller, a US soldier who blames Mercer for the death of his wife and daughter. He gains superpowers himself after a revenge-fuelled pursuit of Mercer in a crumbling New York city goes wrong.

"Some people literally came out and said, 'Man, Mercer was a dick!'" studio VP of technology Dave Fracchia told Eurogamer.

"For me, Mercer was still pretty cool. I'm an ex-scientist myself and a thinking kind of guy. Maybe not so much a socio-path like he was."

Despite Mercer's off-putting personality, Prototype, which released in 2009, struck a chord with gamers and went on to sell 2.1 million copies.

Its success helped convince Radical's overlords at Activision to invest in a sequel, providing the developers at the studio with an opportunity to improve on their openworld superhero action game.

In order to make Prototype 2's Heller likeable, Radical added depth to his character - something Fracchia admits Mercer lacked.

"I like characters that are interesting," he said.

"They don't have to be good. In fact, most interesting characters are conflicted good and bad. Even Heller, he's gone to the point of wanting to go after Mercer, so it's almost like to the point with post-traumatic syndrome that it's unhealthy how much he just wants to go after Mercer.

"He's got his own depth and things he's gone through. And of course, the loss of his family is a very dark thing to go through. We wanted an emotional connection. In many respects Heller's more likeable because of his depth."

But what of grumpy old Mercer, who pops up in Prototype 2 as quasi-ruler of New York and with an agenda of his own?

"With Mercer, you're seeing some depth we're putting into him," Fracchia explained. "We're getting a chance to see into the mind of Mercer at this point.

"For us, it was just getting into better storytelling. That's what it comes down to. You have to have depth. The likeability comes from that depth. You could like characters that are, quote unquote, bad, because they're not necessarily doing what they feel is bad, and they're interesting."

Mercer isn't the first video game lead character to called a dick, of course. Remedy told Eurogamer Alan Wake was intentionally "a bit of a dick" in a 2010 post-mortem interview.

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Bethesda: Skyrim DLC to follow different model to Fallout 3

DLC for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim will be more expansive than the five add-ons released for Bethesda's last title, Fallout 3, but you'll have to wait a little longer to get your hands on it, the developer has revealed.

Speaking in an interview with Kotaku, studio chief Todd Howard confirmed that work is underway on DLC but gamers shouldn't expect the rapid-fire add-on releases offered following Fallout 3's launch back in 2008.

"For Fallout 3 we did five DLCs. That was a very aggressive path for us," he explained.

"Our plan now is to take more time, to have more meat on them [for Skyrim]. They'll feel closer to an expansion pack.

"With Fallout 3, it was, 'Ten dollars is the sweet spot for us and we know we want to put out five of them. And we had overlapping teams. We were coming off Fallout 3 and right back in."

That turned out to be "a real hardcore loop," Howard added. "We just think we can do better content if we approach it a different way."

Though it seems you'll have to wait longer for the expansions, the studio is planning on smaller updates to keep you busy in the meantime.

"Because that gap is going to be bigger, we want to put little things out for free in between. We've already done that for PC with the high-res pack. We're trying to figure out what those things are."

Elsewhere in the interview, Howard explained that some of the additions shown off during a video montage at the DICE summit in Las Vegas last week could make it into these DLC packs.

"There are definitely things in there that we are planning on exploring," he confirmed.

"It looks like a ton of stuff that could ship right now, but it's in a sizzle video. It's, you know, it's not bug-tested, polished, balanced.

"That wasn't all of it. It's probably 60 per cent of it. The other 40 per cent doesn't show as well in a video or we didn't have good footage."

Howard didn't put a date on when we might see the first batch of new content for the game, saying only that development was in the "very early" stages.

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Capcom registers new Darkstalkers trademark

Capcom has registered a new Darkstalkers trademark - sparking speculation that a new game in the vampire fighting game series is in the works.

The trademark was registered on 14th February with the European Union trademarks office and is under examination.

The last time Capcom registered a Darkstalkers trademark there was in 2004, for PlayStation Portable game Darkstalkers Chronicle. Images of this game are below.

Capcom's fighting game producer Yoshinori Ono is often asked about the possibility of making a new Darkstalkers game.

In March 2011 Ono told Eurogamer Capcom had received over 100,000 requests from fans for a new Darkstalkers game - up from the 5000 it had in August 2010.

"One day, if it goes half a million, Capcom may raise its eyebrow a little bit and I could do what I did in London in 2007 when I announced the comeback of Street Fighter," Ono said at the time.

"In the near future, with your help, it may become true. It's on its way, because we're pretty much where we were with Street Fighter a few years back. So keep it up."

With Ono now free from the shackles of creating Street Fighter x Tekken, out next month, is Darkstalkers his next target?

Darkstalkers has seen some activity in recent months. The PlayStation version of the arcade original Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors launched in November last year on PlayStation Network - as a way to rekindle memories of the 1994 cult classic in gamers' minds ahead of a proper sequel?

And three Darkstalkers characters appeared in last year's Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Felicia, Morrigan and Hsien-Ko.

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Journey release date announced

PlayStation Network game Journey launches on 14th March in Europe, Sony has announced.

Journey is from thatgamecompany, the maker of Flow and Flower.

It's described as an "interactive parable", an "anonymous online adventure to experience a person's life passage and their intersections with others".

thatgamecompany began work on Journey right after the release of Flower.

"In these three years, we at thatgamecompany and our friends in SCEA Santa Monica Studio have faced many challenges together and emerged stronger," co-founder Jenova Chen wrote on the PlayStation blog.

"Much sweat and tears have been put into the development of the game, and many people have come and gone.

"So for us, the Journey in the game has also become a metaphor for the development process of the game itself.

"Our team is very close to our own mountaintop; we are just a few short weeks away from letting the world experience what we've poured our hearts and souls into these last three years. I can't describe how eager we are to let everyone finally play the game and hear about your experiences with it."

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